What desktop web browser do you use?
Displaying poll results.41981 total votes.
What desktop web browser do you use?
We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies solve one technical problem -- how to run a sunbeam through a meter.
Firefox here (Score:4, Interesting)
With some plugins to filter out the worst.
I'm not expecting it to catch everything and it's a challenge. But at least I can completely ignore Facebook.
More and more sites are today designed with JavaScript and that's just to punch holes in the privacy filtering - not to make pages/sites more useful.
Re:Firefox here (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly this.
Firefox is still the most customizable, personalized browser, with the best extensions for privacy and isolation that are supported by the browser's architecture.
Site containment, with tab isolation - as developed for FaceBook in FireFox - is a great example. The isolation of elements on pages of third parties, such as login and comment buttons, to API hooks are all disabled, and permitted pages and elements are sandboxed from other tabs, without access to history, cookies, location, etc.
This spawned an ecosystem of tab-isolators for Twitter, Google, Amazon, YouTube and others, based on the same source.
This is one of nearly a dozen examples where FireFox has no real comparison. The Mozilla Foundation isn't perfect, but it is not fully warped by the economics of major corporations like Google, Microsoft and Apple, towards the compromise or capture of the user's electronic identity and behavior.
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As soon as they fix Firefox for Android on the Pixel phones I'll switch to it on desktop as well. Until then I'm stuck on Chrome.
Re: Firefox here (Score:2)
What's wrong with Firefox on Android? I'm using it and not complaining, not on a pixel though.
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Font inflation is messed up, so it ends up with many websites (including Slashdot) being unreadable.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s... [mozilla.org]
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I never noticed. Even reading slashdot. Must not be that bad.
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No about:config and only a couple of extensions allowed. Other than that it's OK.
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It has support for ad blocker (unlike chrome), so that's good enough for me.
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I'm not using any mobile browser which can't sync (passwords, history, bookmarks) with my desktop browser. Firefox serves that purpose well and can block ads.
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I'd need a very good reason to use a browser which is only available on devices from a single vendor anyways.
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It's not tied to a single vendor's phone ecosystem. It's on Google Play. I'm on a OnePlus and can get it fine.
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Strange; I exclusively use Firefox on a Pixel and have never noticed such a flaw. (Or any flaw, really.)
Though your link (below) refers to a Pixel 5.
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I can confirm that the same bug affects by Pixel XL. Maybe it's only the XL due to the screen size/resolution combo?
Re: Firefox here (Score:2)
Is Adblock Browser, based on Chrome, any good?
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It looks dodgy. AdBlock as a whole is a bit dodgy, stick to Firefox and uBlock I think.
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I just switched to Firefox at home because Chrome crashes constantly on my Linux Mint desktop. At work, I'm usually developing for Chrome, so I use Chrome.
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Whenever I develop I develop for W3C standard and test on the most common browsers. (Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Opera)
Apple no longer do Safari for Windows, which means that it's out of scope for testing for Safari.
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Anything Apple for Windows is a joke anyway.
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It's also my primary browser, but it's a badly worded poll. Maybe they wanted another browser war?
However I actually use most of them for various purposes. Except for Vivaldi. First time I've heard of that one.
I do avoid Edge like a plague. Should be renamed Plague 2.0. (But I may still have one of those black Midnight Madness t-shirts from when Microsoft released Plague 1.0.)
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Firefox fan here.
I like the "Send tab to device" feature ... very handy for flicking something from my phone to my desktop.
FireFox is about the only one left with menus... (Score:2)
...for keyboard-driven use.
Re: FireFox is about the only one left with menus. (Score:2)
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Vivaldi has a regular file menu with all the shortcuts delineated by the items. You have to click the "V" button -> View -> Horizontal Main Menu
I use multiple browsers (Score:2)
It depends on which system I using at the time:
Windows 10 - Edge or Chrome
macOS - Safari or Chrome
Ubuntu - Firefox
Debian - Firefox
FreeBSD - Don't use a browser
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It's almost like the person who made the poll shouldn't be working at /. The level of ignorance is astounding. And to not even throw Lynx in for the lols is really disrespecting this community.
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The level of ignorance is astounding.
Are you new here or something? It's been going downhill ever since Cowboy Neal gave up on Natalie's hot grits.
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I would've thought you'd be too busy to post here now that you're back on the board of the FSF ;)
Re: I use multiple browsers (Score:2)
Pah, I've got /dev/net/ for that!
But only for the children.
I myself of course have reserved part of my neurons for a wifi modem and think it directly!
Oh, look, a butterfly! I think it's a fully mature C-x M-c M-!
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Exactly. I don't know any techies or power users who use only 1 web browser.
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Why would I use more than one? I'm not a web developer.
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Why would I use more than one? I'm not a web developer.
I'm not a web developer either. I just mainly use the default browser on the systems that I use, and only go to alternates when the default browser has issues with some sites.
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I use a few browsers - at the same time. I have different tasks that I do in different browsers.
It helps me keep things isolated and organized. I've been doing it this way for years.
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Why would I use more than one? I'm not a web developer.
Nor am I but I need an older version of MSIE for an enterprise project tracking app to work properly, Waterfox for some extensions that no longer work in mainstream Firefox, Chrome for most things but a specific version for the reporting function of an EOL appliance to work properly, similarly a very old version of Firefox & JRE for the management of an ancient computing setup that one cranky, stodgy & well-connected researcher refuses to give up or upgrade - he'll retire in the next couple years.
To
Multiplte (Score:4, Insightful)
Epic: built in, country-specific proxy servers & privacy centric
Pale Moon: old firefox extensions that can't be duplicated on modern firefox
Brave: best chromium browser on multiple levels
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I'm a Pale Moon user. How do we find the old Firefox extensions? All I can find are the Pale Moon-specific addons, which are few in number.
Re: Multiplte (Score:2)
Since when is a single feature grounds for a new application? This isn't Android/iOS!
Only one? (Score:2)
I've *mostly* moved to Chrome, but I still have a Firefox window open at all times. Chromium and Opera are installed but seldom launched. There are a few more installed that come with other packages that very very rarely get used.
Re: Only one? (Score:2)
Why move to Chrome?
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I have been using Firefox ever since it was still called Netscape. I survived even IE6 with it, so resistance is not futile in this case.
Only one browser? (Score:1)
I use almost all of the choices depending on the platform. On Windows I use almost all except the old IE. Primarily I use Vivaldi on Windows but right now I have Vivaldi, Edge, Firefox and Chrome up and running on my Windows desktop. On iOS I use Safari but am given Brave another try. The latest Brave for iOS is pretty snappy; the original Brave was slow and buggy. Occasionally use Chrome or Firefox on my iPad. When I was working with Linux I'd use Firefox or whatever the customer would allow me to instal
SeaMonkey (Score:2)
But SeaMonkey is outdated. So, Firefox but it is having issues with web sites that were designed for Google Chrome. :(
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Not sure I'd go for "outdated".
Seamonkey's problems are mostly with sites which use browser-sniffing, and some of them can't handle "none of the above" at all. There is a Seamonkey setting in about:config where you can set "I'm Firefox, trust me" and that fixes the problem most of the time. Several of the more serious users have Browser-Id strings set up for various sites where they pretend to be another browser just for that site, I'm lazy and use Firefox ESR there instead.
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No, the problem is bloated web sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. So slow!
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Well, if you consider seamonkey.exe hogging up to 3 GB of RAM with multiple tabs on over decade old PCs. :P I really hope SeaMonkey hurry up and get the newer Gecko engine. I have to restart the web browser often. I have to use Firefox when it gets very bad. :(
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Also, very high CPU usages even when idling.
Re: SeaMonkey (Score:2)
What sites?
I don't think it's having any issues, unless Google specifically designed their sites to make FF slow ... again.
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LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit's redesign (not http://old.reddit.com/ [reddit.com] etc.
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GUI is fine. I'm talking under its hood. The engines especially the web (Gecko). It's very old and slow like on Reddit's redesign (http://new.reddit.com; http://old.reddit.com/ [reddit.com] is fine), LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
Falkon (Score:2)
I will write my own webengine with Blackjack and Hookers.
Never mind, let's just fork Chromium.
Pale Moon (Score:3, Informative)
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Bring on the forks (Score:2)
I use waterfox classic and ungoogled chromium because video decoding is important and so is browser customizeability. On android we got waterfox and bromite for the most desktop like experience. Have skipped the default browser offerings for years.
Slashdot logs hold the truth. Editors please share (Score:5, Insightful)
We see popularity polls for things like browsers and operating systems every once in a while. It's rarer, but iirc we've also polled for computer architecture. This is great and all, but Slashdot's site admins have access to the ground truth for its readership and I'd love to see how that compares to what the polls say.
For example, I think there are a lot of idealists out there. In an OS poll, I expect GNU/Linux/BSD to be over-represented and the reality to contain a lot more Windows. For browsers, I predict the polls underrepresent Chrome.
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The issue in inspecting logs is that while I regularly use 4 or 5 different browsers on 3 different OSs, I only peruse /. from one particular machine and one particular browser.
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I’m using lynx on GNU/Hurd, you insensitive clod!
Re: Slashdot logs hold the truth. Editors please s (Score:2)
Nope. Linux really is that much in use nowadays.
But thanks for STILL assisting the MS PR department in holding us back!
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Re: Slashdot logs hold the truth. Editors please s (Score:2)
I use Firefox or Netsurf when I'm on ./ /. because it doesn't work.
othertimes when I just want to read something simple I use Links. but never for
Me too on this - please share a base data dump (Score:2)
...without sharing any PII, of course.
If the public poll is anywhere close to the truth, then that absolutely proves that we are truly a very narrow, self-selecting subset of outliers and nerds (most likely both). I don't that even Doctor Strange could find a reality where everyone on the planet is using Firefox 2:1 over Chrome.
Edge? (Score:2)
Surprised by how few people are using Edge as their primary browser ...
I was on the Chrome camp, but it has became slow and bloated as of lately. Migration to Edge was a total non-issue, all of my favorites, extensions, etc. just ported over. Performance is stellar and resource usage is manageable (Chrome is a memory hog!). Could not be happier :)
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Yeah, no.
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It might be because the poll lumps Edge and IE into one option. Nobody wants to be mistaken for an IE user!
Re: Edge? (Score:2)
Because it's just KHTML/WebKit plus Google* PLUS Microsoft.
* The "features" that nobody asked for.and genuinely solely exist to murder other browsers by making them unable to keep up.
I mean do you WANT to be ass-raped?
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Dissenter (Score:1)
Dissenter is an open source web browser built for The People, not advertisers. Dissenter organizes conversations around individual URL's and creates a public square on them where anyone can leave a comment. The Dissenter browser blocks ads and trackers by default, making your web browsing experience much faster than traditional web browsers. Dissenter also offers an extension for other browsers, just in case you're not ready to make the switch yet and wan
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I tried it, but for some weird reason my window tiling app (Winsplit) didn't work.
Deal breaker for me cause I use the keyboard navigation to move windows between monitors and it simply didn't work on Dissenter for some reason. Works fine on Brave/Brave Dev.
Multiple! (Score:2)
Like many, I use multiple browsers. Firefox is top on my desktop/laptop platforms followed by Edge and Safari seeing occasional use. I will use Chrome for Google Analytics, but that's the only place I use Chome. On mobile (iOS based phone and tablet), it's all Safari. I don't bother with other browsers there.
Firefox (Score:2)
But Chrome for Netflix and Hulu, because they seem to have trouble with any other browser.
Browsers I avoid (Score:2)
I use mostly Firefox, sometimes Chrome.
But moremore importantlyimportantly, especially avoid browsers made by Microsoft and Safari.
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I couldn't care less about browser performance these days. My computer is more than fast enough to run any browser. Just make sure you get an ad blocker, otherwise performance will of course suffer.
Vivaldi (Score:2)
Vivaldi is my primary. But some things I open in Firefox.
Same in Android, except I use Firefox a bit more because requesting the desktop site in mobile Firefox doesn't get you the stupid, sparse "tablet mode" site that they cram down your throat, it actually usually loads the Desktop version. But man is the Android interface dumb.
LINKS anyone? (Score:2)
Konqueror (Score:2)
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I still have fond memories of using Konqueror as my main browser back on KDE 3.x. Well, I have fond memories of KDE 3.x in general.
Mosaic Anyone? (Score:2)
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You guys and your modern browsers...Mosaic [github.com] has all the functionality anyone needs. :-)
Mosaic was my first graphical web browser, but I also used lynx.
Re: Mosaic Anyone? (Score:2)
used lynx.
Why do you say that in the past tense?
Surprised how popular Firefox is here (Score:1)
At the moment, more than twice as many have responded Firefox than Chrome (50% vs. 23%). I would expect Firefox to do better here than on the web at-large, but I wouldn't have expected it to be the majority. (Personally, I said Other as I use Pale Moon mostly).
Chrome/Firefox (Score:2)
Multiple (Score:2)
I have to use multiple browsers to make sure my front end displays properly for all our clients.
I personally like Chrome and Firefox for their dev tools and general web compliance.
Missing Option (Score:3)
Seamonkey (Score:2)
Not just one (Score:2)
I use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Edge, in roughly that order. Despite standards, somethings don't work in one browser but work fine in another.
Chromium on Linux Mint 19 (Score:1)
Edge / IE? (Score:2)
IE is ancient.
Legacy Edge is not tied to IE or the new Edge.
Edge is a chrome-based browser.
Three different categories of browser all lumped together. Not going to gather any useful information that way.
WaterFox (Score:2)
WaterFox, and FireFox on sites or applications that don't run nice on WF. Besides Chrome (easiest to tunnel through some paywalls), Opera occasionally
Multiple - depends on platform (Score:2)
er, /var/log/www/access.log (Score:2)
or you could just grep your logs for my user-agent you know...i don't spoof it
Should also ask what OTHER browser you use (Score:2)
This being /. Firefox has a good chance of leading for primary browser, despite what the Real World data show. But most of us probably ALSO use Chrome or something based on it, such as Edge or Brave. There's a growing number of web sites that simply don't work with something other than Chrome. Unfortunately. So not only what do you use, but what do you keep in reserve - that latter category is likely to be dominated by Chrome or a derivative.
Violin v1.0 (Score:2)
I find it difficult to try new things, so I've stuck with Violin.
wget (Score:2)
That's all you need
RealVNC (Score:2)
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It seems a bit silly to put Edge and Edge (chrome version) in the same category, but here we are.